Ex-'Melrose' actress to be sentenced in NJ

Thursday, February 14, 2013

SOMERVILLE (AP) — A former “Melrose Place” actress who was driving drunk when her SUV plowed into another car and killed a woman in New Jersey is about to learn her fate.

Amy Locane-Bovenizer faces up to 10 years in prison when she’s sentenced Thursday. A jury convicted her of vehicular homicide in November, but acquitted her of a more serious charge of aggravated manslaughter.

Somerset County prosecutors say Locane-Bovenizer’s blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit when the crash occurred in 2010 on a dark two-lane highway in Montgomery Township.

Her lawyers sought to shift blame to a third motorist who was pursuing the actress after her vehicle was rear-ended. The defense also claimed the dead woman’s husband made a slow turn in front of Locane-Bovenizer’s SUV.